Bledsoe dealt to Suns, Redick to Clips in three-team deal

POSTED: Jul 2, 2013 6:40 PM ETUPDATED: Jul 3, 2013 6:23 AM ET

By David Aldridge, TNT analyst

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The Suns believe that Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic could play together next season.

The Los Angeles Clippers addressed an acute need for more shooting Tuesday by acquiring guard J.J. Redick from Milwaukee and forward Jared Dudley from Phoenix in a three-team deal that sent guard Eric Bledsoe and swingman Caron Butler to the Suns. The Bucks will get two second-round picks in the trade.

Redick, a career 39 percent shooter from three-point range, will get a four-year contract worth $27 million in a sign-and-trade contract.

Yahoo! Sports first reported the trade.

GameTime: Proposed Trade

New Clippers coach Doc Rivers has always liked Dudley, who averaged 10.9 points last season for the Suns and can play several positions. Dudley was also a favorite of new Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry, who was Dudley's head coach in Phoenix.

In Bledsoe, the rebuilding Suns, with new general manager Ryan McDonough and coach Jeff Hornacek, would seem to be expressing dissatisfaction with Goran Dragic, who got a four-year, $30 million free agent deal from Phoenix last summer. Bringing in Bledsoe also does not bode well for last year's first-round pick, guard Kendall Marshall.

Yet the Suns believe that Bledsoe and Dragic could play together next season, with Bledsoe spending some time off the ball at shooting guard.

The Clippers held onto the 24-year-old Bledsoe for the last year and a half despite having several suitors, wanting to hold onto his talents even after acquiring Chris Paul in 2011. They felt Bledsoe was one of the league's best backup point guards, certainly capable of starting for most teams.

But Bledsoe wanted to start and was certainly looking for a big contract when he became a free agent in two years. With Paul agreeing to a $107 million max deal this week, there would be no payday for Bledsoe forthcoming by the Clippers.

Milwaukee had little chance of re-signing Redick, whom it acquired at the trade deadline in February from Orlando in a deal that sent forward Tobias Harris to the Magic. The Bucks also lost forward Mike Dunleavy, Jr., on Monday, when the veteran reached a verbal agreement with Chicago on a two-year, $6 million deal.

Dudley, a highly popular player with Phoenix who played small forward and shooting guard for the Suns, tweeted his approval of the trade.

"I can't lie, I'm excited to play close to home!!!" he wrote. "If I had to go to any team it would be the Clippers!! Time to get to work!!!"

He also thanked the fans and the coaches, current and former team officials and Suns owner Robert Sarver.

Dudley, in his fifth NBA season and third with the Suns, averaged a career-high 10.9 points in 2012-13, his first as a starter, but he was part of a team that posted the second-worst record in Suns history.

With the drafting of 7-foot-1 Alex Len as the fifth pick overall and the acquisition of Bledsoe and Butler, McDonough -- formerly the assistant GM in Boston -- is making his first steps to shake up that unimpressive roster.

The deal has the Suns taking on the contract of Butler, a two-time NBA all-star who has played 11 seasons in the league with five teams. His biggest success came in his time with the Washington Wizards. Butler averaged 10.4 points last season, the second of a three-year, $24 million contract he signed with the Clippers.